The much-hyped decision of the UP government decision to distribute tablets among Class X pass students may get a silent burial. The state government is yet to identify the company which would supply over 25 lakh tablets for students who passed their examination in 2012. The tender process to invite companies to distribute tablets expired on Monday.
An official in the Chief Minister’s secretariat told 'The Pioneer' in lucknow on Tuesday that a new tender would be floated very soon - but was hestitant in spelling out the deadline.
"At least seven companies had shown interest in supplying tablets in such a large quantity. But they raised several questions. The tender collapsed because the government was late in responding," the official said.
The Samajwadi Party has been tom tomming distribution of laptops to class XII pass students and tablets to class X pass students. It was in SP's election agenda to do so. The distribution of laptops has begun in a phased manner but a question mark persists over distribution of tablets. The Akhilesh Yadav Government has a target to distribute 15 lakh laptops among class XII pass students and has
procured over 3 lakh laptops.
An official of one of the companies which took part in the bid told 'The Pioneer' that the companies who bid for tablets had sought clarifications on technical specifications.
There were over 100 clarifications. "Had the government wanted, it could have come up with the clarifications. The tardy reaction suggests that the state government was not interested in tablet distribution anymore," he said.
The state government had cancelled the tender for supplying tablets once earlier this year as out of three companies - HP, HCl and Acer. But only HCl was able to submit the sample tablet for test on time.
A fresh tender was floated in April this year whose tenure expired on Monday. The tender for tablets said that only those bidders with annual turnover of at least Rs 1,100 crore for three consecutive years could participate in the process. Besides, the selected bidder was required to open service centres in all 313 tehsils across the state - roughly meaning 4 to 5 centres in each district.
The.Akhilesh Yadav Government has sanctioned Rs 2850 crore for distribution of 15 lakh laptops and to purchase the required tablets, government will have to spend another Rs 1000 crore.
SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhari said that distribution of tablets among students would also start soon. "The CM is personally distributing laptops among students and the next step would be the distribution of tablets," Chaudhari said.